Do people use wellseal with the paper base gasket ?
Hi,
I would say that the modern gaskets need little more than a good smear of high melting point grease rubbed well in. Howerver, in reality I use a combination of Blue Hylomar and high melting point grease.
On gaskets that are there for the long haul I use the Hylomar on both sides eg base gasket and inner timing case - these would be a pain to replace if there was leak. On others I use the Hylomar on the side that gets removed eg primary case, outer timing case and rocker cover with hmp grease on the other side. This means that the joint can be opened up several times without having to replace the gasket as it remains intact.
Dave.
Ok, well I think I will try white lithium grease which I heard about on an American site.
High melting point grease? Rupert Ratio just said ' grease'.
So fo I need to interrogate Castrol on the melting point of my 30 yr old tub of LM (2) grease?
I use wellseal on all my paper gaskets. It doesn't give me any trouble.
I use well seal too as it's easy to remove should you you need to disturb and clean up the joint at some point in the future. Some other products act like cement after a few years and it can be a bugger to get off.
I use wellseal on all metal to metal gaskets; on one side of paper ones (grease on the other side) and on annealed copper head gaskets. Super stuff.
Hi,
I think that the quality of the gasket is important. In the old days they were not much more than paper but today there seems to be a range of quality out there.
For quite few years a material called 'Halite' seemed to be quite common and it worked really well and could be reused many times. I suspect that they contained asbestos so have had the formula changed. Currently there seems to be green ones and orange ones.
The green seem ok but the orange seem a bit brittle.
SRM sell 'Klingersil' gaskets.
Dave.
I use klingersil gaskets, a guy on BSA used to sell them individually so I would just buy the ones I needed. They are quite thick and have a waxy like finish. I still use the well seal. Often I can carefully remove the gasket and reuse them.
Thanks for all the replies.
i ve seen a video of the triumph factory using wellseal to seal the crankcases and other engine parts.
i have some old a10 crankcases and i think bsa used hermatite red.
hi,
yes I use welseal and loctite 518 I remember as a 16 year old many many years ago a friend was selling his tiger cub every joint was covered in red hermatite
my god what a mess.
I have been using nitrile rubber gaskets which I buy from some chap off ebay. They appear to be well made and last well. The only downside which I have found is that there seems to be something in Wellseal which causes them to disintegrate. They work brilliantly with any other sealant, grease, or even no seal, but on the couple of times I have tried them with Wellseal, they have literally dropped to pieces within about 24 hours. Has anyone else experienced this?
I've used Wellseal for years (decades), incliding on rubber seals amd never had a problem. In saying that, rurrer isn't what it used to be...
I have used Wellseal for over 35 years and never had any problems at all. I do use it on both sides of the Gasket too.
I just redone a triumph head and used it on the rockerbox`s which he had leaks on...Now he is all good No leaks...... so I would say Wellseal is Great.......... I think unless some one knows diferant that it was devaliped by Rolls royce ?
I use it on all BSA Triumph..... Norton... Honda.... yamaha.... and all the others :( LOL just saying :P
Don't know about "developed" but didn't R-R promote Hylomar?
Wellseal one side and grease the other is my preferred method.
I think it was hylomar - the blue stuff - that was said to be developed by RR. I still prefer wellseal.
I consider Wellseal old hat, there are plenty of other products on the market, why use gaskets if you can seal a face with something different, I believe Locktite can seal almost anything as long as you don't need a gap for things like gear boxes where the distance between is crucial.
TTJ
Sorry for a potential hijack but why do we want to put anything on the gaskets?
Isn't it their job to seal the imperfections?
I'm seeing variations of (some kind of sealer) on one side and either nothing or grease on the other.
Just trying to get a handle on this and the best way to try to make my bike as dry as possible.
Thanks
Marc
As usual you're spoilt for choice. As far as I'm concerned, wellseal, gasket and grease do the job perfectly well even if it's old hat. The same can be said for most of our bikes, and I don't consider that loctite will be any better provided the mating surfaces are in good order.
Indeed, if Hylomar or Wellseal "work" as desired then how can anything be better in some way?
They either seal or they don't.
The most troublesome areas on my bikes (different era/spec B34) is the primary chaincase.
I've cleaned, trued, cleared the the inner case screw threads, tried different spacers between inner case and frame.
So far used my usual Halite gasket and Wellseal, Halite and grease, rubber fitted dry, rubber with Wellseal, various combos of the above with Loctite flange sealer, including filling the screw holes on the innermost face of the case (next to the chain).
None have been 100%, each time I think I've cracked it after 2-3 runs there is a drip. I'm using Castrol TQF (red) with the NEB clutch and Castrol 10/30 4T for modern (unit engine/gearbox/clutch) in the 6-spring (clutch is 'perfect' thus far.
As no oil ways to worry about I can try RTV or the rubber again with glue.
Rest of the engines and gearbox are ok (speedo drive dribble, mist around gearbox, gear change spindles).
when I rebuilt my first car engine , a Vauxhall Viva HB around 1977, the main dealers recommended Welseal, Ive had a tube ever since. My only complaint, its permanent.
Fluff Brown of FB AJS used to use bathroom sealer on all his Stormer builds.
Not tending to rebuild as often, I find Ive got tubes of kitchen sealer, Orange hermatite (mastic), grey Michel, black Welseal, red Hermatite and a blue fuel and oil proof sealer.
the mastic/kitchen sealer type, never last long solidifying in the tube. Welseal is liquid, Michel went squidgy (rubbery not set but not spreadable) the blue one I use most often is like a grease, non setting.
I tend to just use 3 bond on pri.ary cases etc. No gasket.
I use 3 bond put on where theres no gasket it is the best .
The main problem I find with Hylomar, is that it seems to loose it's solvent in the tube over time, making it unusable.
Wellseal, on the other hand, seems to last for ever. The only problem is the smell, but if you suffer from uncontrollable flatulence, you probably won't notice.
Quote from: chaz on 10 Jul, 2025, 08:31 when I rebuilt my first car engine , a Vauxhall Viva HB around 1977, the main dealers recommended Welseal, Ive had a tube ever since. My only complaint, its permanent.
Fluff Brown of FB AJS used to use bathroom sealer on all his Stormer builds.
It can be removed with carburettor cleaner as it never sets permanently (at least not between my rebuilds!) I use clear bathroom sealer (must be silicone based not acrylic) but very sparingly and only when there's no chance of it getting in oilways etc. The primary chaincase on my Electra being a case in point.
never had carb cleaner back in the 70's.
just looked at a KTM 350 that seized, a previous owner had work done and instead of new gaskets, someone used black mastic style sealer. oil tight but blocked a couple of oilways, one small one you would not think was a oilhole.
a similar bike Ive just rebuilt a 2 stroke crosser,, had seized mix was too thin, casings joined with a similar black sealer.
some places leave signatures.
Quote from: chaz on 11 Jul, 2025, 13:04 never had carb cleaner back in the 70's.
No but we did have MEK and other horrible substances. During a stint in the instrument workshop as a technical apprentice with the CEGB in the late 1960s it was great stuff for degreasing but did leave you feeling fairly stoned after a while......
Quote from: Mosin on 07 Jul, 2025, 18:36 I have been using nitrile rubber gaskets which I buy from some chap off ebay. They appear to be well made and last well. The only downside which I have found is that there seems to be something in Wellseal which causes them to disintegrate. They work brilliantly with any other sealant, grease, or even no seal, but on the couple of times I have tried them with Wellseal, they have literally dropped to pieces within about 24 hours. Has anyone else experienced this?
I have one of these off fleabay for my primary chaincase, I'm struggling to fit it because it is so floppy, how are you doing it?
Stick it to the cover with grease or the sealer of your choice.
Wellseal is shellac based (I haven't tried French polishing any cabinets with it mind) and the solvent is meths so meths cleans up any surplus and will clean mating faces.
I've used hylomar blue on my chain case and so far no problems.
Any suggestions for Amal float bowl ?
If you're talking monobloc wellseal works here as well. But leave for 24 hours before filling with fuel.